US must respect air passenger privacy rights

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 12th Dec 2003

The European Parliament is asking the European Commission to account to it over the outcome of EU-US negotiations about privacy protection in the transfer of airline passenger data, ostensibly for anti-terrorism purposes.

Next Tuesday (December 16th) EU Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, plus the Commissioners responsible for transport, civil liberties and external relations, will report to the European Parliament's justice & home affairs committee on whether there has been enough progress to make an 'adequacy' finding that US demands pass the privacy tests of the EU's Data Protection Directive.

The issues of disagreement have centred on the amount of sensitive personal information demanded, the duration of storage of data, whether it can be used for law enforcement purposes other than terrorism, and rights of the passengers to legal redress for misuse or inaccuracy of data.

Baroness Sarah Ludford, Euro-MP for London and Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman, commented ahead of the meeting:

"When we last heard from the European Commission, the results of the negotiations were unsatisfactory, for example that the American authorities wanted to take too much personal information and to use the data to pursue crimes other than terrorism. The Parliament regards these demands as breaching EU privacy regulations."

"When the Commission presents the complete results of its negotiations with the United States to the European Parliament next week I expect them to be able to assure us that any deal will respect European citizens' rights."

"European Commissioners have a difficult job, to square US demands, legitimate security concerns and privacy requirements, but they have a primary duty to enforce EU data protection laws and MEPs will continue to stress that."

A European Parliament resolution on 9th October 2003 called on the European Commission to take action by December to ensure compliance with EU laws and regulations, either through cessation of transfers of passenger data from the EU to the USA or through adequate privacy provisions for the protection of passenger data once transferred to the USA.